Telecom equipment maker Nokia on Thursday said that it will expand manufacturing of passive optical network (PON) optical line terminals (OLTs) at its factory in Sriperimbudur near Chennai.

The decision comes in response to increasing demand from local customers in India, as well as international markets, the company said in a statement.

Shifts in consumer behaviour, from home working to data-rich entertainment services, are driving demand for broadband. This demand is matched by strong institutional support with significant funding from governments and private equity funds around the world that are driving investments in broadband and fiber connectivity, it said.

Addressing demand

Nokia is currently a participant in the government’s production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, and is extending its production capacity into Chennai in response to growing demand.

“The importance and criticality of high-speed broadband have never been more pronounced than it is today. As the momentum towards 5G networks and new hybrid usage models push operators towards increasingly distributed network architectures, service providers are investing in fiber to build out and upgrade their existing networks,” said Sandy Motley, President Fixed Networks at Nokia.

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Nokia is the leader in FTTx solutions globally and is innovating rapidly to introduce next-generation PON solutions, he said.

“We are happy to add the manufacturing capacity in India to better address increasing demand in the region and worldwide,” Motley added.

Fiber connectivity

Demand for fiber is also shifting to new regions with the Asia-Pacific region seeing strong demand in markets like Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. Much of this demand will be seen in the form of fiber to the home (FTTH) but there is also significant demand from mobile network operators (MNOs) as they deploy 5G and need next-generation fiber in their transport networks to carry the expected surge in data traffic, the company said.

Nokia’s planned production of PON OLTs in India will give a boost to expand the company’s production base and geographic reach, it said.

“India is seeing massive demand for fiber connectivity from both fixed and mobile operators. OLT production at our Chennai plant will offer a timely boost to meeting this demand in a timely way. Service providers in India will benefit from the increased availability of both existing lightspan product lines as well as upcoming GPON access nodes which offer smaller lower-density OLTs to suit a range of conditions and requirements,” Sanjay Malik, Senior Vice President and Head of India Market at Nokia, said.

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